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Cricket Tour Report - Update 3

22 February 2013

NB - Photos will be added after our return on Sunday as Wifi access is limited at present.

On Thursday morning we set off to Cape Town for the final leg of the tour. With Table Mountain as the backdrop, SACS offered another superb setting in which to play cricket. Hlengisa Primary School were the third team in the T20 tournament and it was lovely to see boys from all three teams mixing so well.

We started against SACS and put in our best performance on tour so far. They won the toss and elected to bat on a slow pitch. Maxwell, Ahmed, Martin-Zakheim and Andreae were superb and we restricted them to 82-7. This was a little below the par score for a 20/20 but we knew they would have a strong bowling attack so we would do well to chase down their total. Our fielding was better, but we still gifted them a number of "extras". Having said that it was still an excellent effort against one of the top teams in Cape Town.

In response both our openers, Martin-Zakeim and Maxwell, went cheaply. Mackeness followed and at 11-3 we were in trouble! Andreae and Eyre steadied the ship and batted magnificently to take us to 61-3 off 12 overs. 21 to win off 42 balls, with plenty of wickets in hand and to say that we looked strong favourites was an understatement. With the loss of Eyre for 22 and Andreae for 31, both in quick succession, we never regained enough composure to win the game and we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws if victory! We ended up on 76-7 after 20 overs, just 6 runs short of their total. Too many dot balls from overs 14 to 18 cost us, but credit had to go to the SACS opening bowlers who came on and bowled very well during that tight spell. The team will have learnt many lessons on the tour but non more so than on this morning.

It was a great game of cricket and further evidence of the progress made. SACS had recently beaten WPPS who had comprehensively beaten us just a few days before.

In the final game we amassed 120-5 against Hlengisa with a number of boys contributing. Marshall, Chalmers, Ahmed, Scott Lyon all scored 20-30 with the bat as we took the game away from our friends from Nyanga township. Ritblat, Mackaness, Eyre, Sangha and Sellers all took wickets and we bowled them out for 35. It was our 2nd win on tour, but really should have been number 3 especially after our performance earlier in the day.

It had been another cracking day in Cape Town. We were looked after superbly well by Mr Nel, the SACS headmaster, all the coaching staff and all the host parents. After a quick braai, we even managed to get up to the top of Table Mountain which was spectacular and a fitting end to the day.

On Friday we head to Llandudno and Camps Bay to spend some time on the beach before having our end of tour dinner at the Waterfront. On Saturday we play Bishops who will be another stiff test. We hope that the boys continue to do Caldicott proud!